Sharon has been published with an article in the July 2020 Tempe Public Library Newsletter, Pen to Paper Resources for Authors, with an article entitled Five Ways to Lose Your Reader on the First Page.A simple and straightforward look at five different traps that push readers away from being capture ...

My 2017 writing year has already been a whirl of fabulous  writing events and appearances.Sharon Skinner Book AppearanceJanuary was a super busy month. Lots of travel and teaching/presenting. As you know, I taught a half-day workshop at the ASU Virginia G Piper Center for Creative Writing.I also s ...

My new year of writing and teaching is off to a great start. On January 6th, I signed an agreement with the Arizona State Library Association to become the 2017 Summer Writer in Residence at Scottsdale Public Library. I will be providing a series of six creative writing workshops and will also hav ...

So, back to writing picture books, Conference Critiques (and the Cinderella Dream).I submitted my PB ms for a critique at the 2015 SCBWI Summer Conference, knowing full well that the true purpose of submitting for critique critiques is to get professional level feedback on the work. However, like ma ...

Since the beginning of this writing journey, I have wanted to write a picture book. And, like many authors, I have more than one abandoned picture book manuscript to my name. I sometimes imagine them huddling together in a drawer somewhere, trying to keep warm. Out of sight, but not necessarily out ...

Plot points, crisis, and climax, oh my! I have been reading up on plotting, taking a deep dive into process and techniques, attempting to distill the information that others have provided in books like The Plot Whisperer by Martha Alderson, Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell, Building Better Plo ...

Kira, Vaith and Kelmir. Characters in setting.When writing, I start from character, not simply because I think it’s a great place to start—although, for me, it’s mostly character engagement that keeps me reading (or writing) a book or story—but more so because that’s just the way my brain ...